Sexual images in advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sexual images in advertising - Essay Example This "Sexual images in advertising" essay describes how sexual images in advertisement affect consumer's behavior and reactions. Sexual images were used by the ancient copywriters as long as epistolary genre existed. Ancient Greek comedies were often filled with sexual images, such as Aristophanes' â€Å"Lysistrata†, an antiwar comedy about women who tried to use sex with their husbands to make them stop fighting wars. Medieval classics like Chaucer's â€Å"Canterbury Tales† and Shakespeare â€Å"The Taming of the Shrew† are overwhelmed with sexual double meanings and overtly sexual images, some of which are omitted today because of the archaic language and the "strict" aura around such masterpieces. Since the appearance of electronic media and electronic advertising, sexual images started to appear on television and radio. Though standards for television commercials and radio spots are usually stricter in regard to sexual images use comparing to print advertisin g, because it is easier to keep sexually oriented print media from children than it is radio or TV. In spite of the variety of sexual images on TV, strong theoretical assumptions, and evidence of the power of physical attractiveness on communication outcomes, the influence of physically attractive persons on consumer desire to buy remains unclear. Erotic images were found to increase consumer awareness to an ad, but not necessarily increase recall or positive attitudes to a brand. As the levels of nudity or erotism getting higher, the intended communication trends either turn negative or lose their strength at all. It turns that the effects of sexual images on cognitive behaviour cannot be estimated without considering certain outer consumer attributes such as gender, age, level of product involvement and emotional arousal. The sexual motivation is usually identified as one of eight common tools of emotional communication in television. The inconsistency between cognitive and affective results toward sexual images in advertising can be partially explained by differences in personal traits of every consumer.